Every Google account comes with an integrated Gmail and Google Drive feature but limited to each user. The Google Drive free version comes with 15GB of storage space which is shared between Google Drive, Gmail Attachments, and Photos. So if you are receiving messages like “You’re almost out of Google Photos storage” or “You’re almost out of Gmail storage”, it’s time to free up storage space from Gmail Account.
Gmail Attachments is what holds most of the storage space. We had got so used to the free space, that we never bothered to delete even if they had attachments. That’s what is coming back to us. There are two ways out, either you pay for extra storage space, or you delete all unnecessary emails with attachments.
Steps to free up storage space from Gmail Account, Photos, and Drive
If you were surprised that Backed up Photos did not take much space, then there is a reason. When you choose to backup photos only in high quality, and not in the original version, they are not taken against your Google Drive storage space or Google Account.
Check & Delete attachments of big size:
The files and attachments come along with the email archiving give headaches for the normal users. Whether you need them or not, they directly occupy your email space. And, when you choose to save them, the Google Drive saves them as files.
If you want to find every email containing attachments, type “has: attachment” in the search bar and hit enter. You can add the file extension as the tail to the keyword (eg. has: attachment jpg) to get the list of emails with certain types of files. Also, you can specify the attachment size criteria with a search query like “has: attachment larger:10M.”
If you get this right, you might not have to go ahead at all. It should be enough to free up storage space from Gmail Account.
Bulk Delete emails
Newsletters will flood Inbox with a hell load of unnecessary emails and newsletters that make no sense to you. So, it is easy to find and delete the emails in the same category. If you want to categorize the similar emails and bulk remove them at a go, you can proceed through the below steps.
- Open Gmail and choose an email from the category you wish to remove.
- Click on tilde (three dots) icon at the top right corner and choose “Filter messages like this.”
- Now, you have to give the match keywords like email ID, recipient address, Subjects, Keyword, email size, etc.
- Now click on “Create Filter” to reuse in future or select the Search button.
- You can now select all and bulk delete the emails listed.
You can check the Drive space usage after each session deletion, displayed at the bottom of Gmail window, and see if you were able to free up storage space from Gmail Account or not.
Clear Spam & Trash folders
Google’s smart blacklisting feature moves the suspecting emails and messages automatically to the spam folder. So, if you were not much looking in the spam folder, there is a chance that these emails might give extra weight to your account. So, click on “More” and choose “Spam” from the left panel in Gmail window and tap on “Delete all spam messages now” button showed at the top to clear all.
Similarly, you need to clear the trash directory too. Every email you delete goes into the trash folder. It is removed permanently only when you empty the trash.
Manage files in Google Drive
Gmail used Google Drive storage to save attachments. The space consumption in Google Drive can also affect the Gmail account. So you need to go to drive.google.com and search for large files, or unnecessary data. You can permanently remove whatever seems superfluous.
Clear Google Photos storage
Acting as a media backup service, the Google Photos try to sync the photos and video files to your Google account. Therefore, you can access them anytime from your account using any connected smartphones or PCs. But they create a storage space wastage too. To clear the Google Photos from your PC, go to photos.google.com from the browser and delete unwanted images and files forever.
In case you have chosen to backup photos in original resolution, unless necessary, switch to high-quality option.
